Whether we be able to drink of the Cup he drank of and be baptized with the Baptism he was baptized with Was it not to intimate That if we die with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him and have it granted to us to sit down with him on the Throne of his Glory our very Enemies beholding What would it be less even in this world if he should but please to cause upon this occasion of our Suffering that the Spirit of God and of Glory should rest upon us and bring forth his Kingdom within us in Power giving us that Mouth and Wisdom that will make us mighty in word and deed that Faith to which all things are possible that Spirit of Supplication and Prayer that he will alwayes hear and immediately answer God's Arm is not shortned doubtess great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ to be admired in them If we come not to live here in the actual fruition and full accomplishment of them as they will be experienced by Believers even on this side the death or full change of their mortal body yet if we die in the certain fore-sight and embracing of them by Faith this will be no small blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his Work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that he is exposing to the Light His Sons must be manifested and evidently distinguished from those who say they are such and are not There is a glory to be revealed in them unto which their Suffering is made the needful Preparation and this is called the Redemption of the body In that day the tabernacling of God in men shall be visible Their very bodies shall be the Temple of the Holy Ghost In them as his Sanctuary will God dwell for evermore whence shall be given forth such visible signs of his extraordinary Presence as shall render it past dispute to the sight of every man that God is in them and with them of a Truth This state of entire resignedness and subjection of our bodies to our Spirits and of our Spirits unto Christ the Father of them shall certainly be brought to the view of the whole World The eyes of those that see them shall acknowledge them and the ears that hear them shall bear witness to them that they are the Seed and Off-spring which the Lord hath blessed Our body thus considered as capable of such advance and honour is not meerly the outward case or shell that must return to dust but includes also the bodily organical state of Life or that souly animal Life which the Spirit of man exercises in conjunction with his mortal body In this kind of Life it is we see hear and speak have the exercise of our Senses after a distinct manner from Angels and intellectual Substances in a way of operation inferiour to theirs proper and peculiar to the rational Soul as needing and using the earthly Organs or Instruments of the mortal body There is also in man that which is peculiarly called Mind or Spirit in distinction from his Soul or from the souly Life and activity of the same Spirit in and by its earthly body 1 Thess 5. 23. The Spirit or Mind of man as distinguished from that life and operation it performs in the mortal body is capable even while in the body to be awakened by the Father of Spirits and come forth in a superiour way even of natural life received by man in his first creation to act as out of the body or without the use of bodily organs as an equal or associate to the very Angels Now because the bodily and inferiour powers of our mind are the instruments of that converse we are subjected to in these dayes of our vanity so that if we will be sociable it must be by the use thereof the Apostle James comprehends all the action of these inferiour powers by the sensible organs we make use of in the exercise thereof under the name of the tongue when he saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body To bridle and regulate the tongue order all the language action and expression of the animal powers aright is to bridle the whole body under the government or ruling authority of the Mind or Spirit considered in its superiour and angelical kind of life and acting as out of the body or above and without the use of bodily organs The Mind or Spirit of man thus considered is as the Pilot that turns the Ship about whithersoever he listeth If it well and truly exercise its governing power it causes the animal life in all the operations and affections thereof to obey its dictates and commands however fiercely driven by contrary Winds false Doctrine any corrupting violent influences of Devils or men upon it and fetches it off from whatever tumultuous disorder it s own sensual lusts and passions are ready to run it into Jam. 3. 2 5. To be partaker of the Redemption of the body is to be made this perfect man which is taught so to live and act from right spiritual Principles as not to offend in word through the Power actually conferred on him and exercised by him for the bridling of the whole body in the sence above declared and for the keeping it in subjection to the Spirit or angelical part in him in righteousness and true holiness This taming of the tongue or subduing of the bodily part in us to the spiritual and intellectual is a work of no small difficulty a thing that is not to be purchased but at a dear rate It may cost us all that we have and no ill bargain neither since by our words it is that we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned For until we have brought under our body and reduced it into a fixed subjection and entire resignation to our Spirits let us boast never so much that which is perfect is not yet come even that perfection which in a very eminent degree shall be experienced by the Saints here on Earth on this side the grave and during their continuance in the mortal body This for ought I can discern will be the product of the present sharp and fiery Tryals that God hath brought upon his People all the World over After they have suffered a while and the same Afflictions have been accomplished in the rest of their Brethren that are in the World they may so far have the work of Patience perfected in them as in this sense to become perfect and entire wanting nothing and to shine forth as so many bright morning stars and fore-running signs of the near approach of the brightness of the Day of Christ's second coming This God hath set before the eye of my
by Faith through the power of which the entire resignation of our will into the leading and rule of the Spirit and Will of Christ is onely wrought and of which we shall treat particularly in its proper place though this small touch of it is needful here But the choice which Man made was to lean to his own understanding for his guide and to trust to the use of his Freedom which gave him to be at his own dispose as sufficient to encounter with and resist all Temptations and upon the first encounter failed and miscarried and let in Sin Death and Wrath upon himself and all his Posterity as the sad Consequence of that Fact of his To be then upon these terms as Adam was before his fall personally righteous and finding acceptance with God whilst we stand in such Obedience and Righteousness is an Effect which Christ in his first Ministry doth produce in the hearts of men making them in this respect the first sort of the four Witnesses we have before-mentioned and which though we have been considering of them in the Person of the first Adam before the Fall yet by the same Rule and Proportion the Witness is still the same whether it be communicated originally at mans Creation or else by renewal or restauration again after the fall by the same hand and Ministry which first gave it which Christ may do if he please and that he hath done is most obvious and undeniable from the experience we have had of late years within these Nations in a sort of Professors and Witnesses of Christ that do exactly go upon this bottom of Personal Righteousness wrought by the Principles of pure Nature renewed and restored within them which they assert may be held in perfection whilst we are here in the body and by which we may as by the Light within us perfectly subdue our brutish nature and keep under the body though all this be accompanied with mutability and the acceptance which they find with God is according to their works whilst they do well otherwise sin is at the door and the punishment according to the same This sort of Professors of the Name of Christ rise so high in their Testimony concerning him as to call him The glorious Sun of the soul the Searcher through of all darkness the Wonderful Power the Incomprehensible Wisdom and Immutable Holiness a thing that is invisible to every fleshly thing the one individual Spirit of Brightness that created all souls and are so dazeled with the Beams of this Glory all which he truly is that they overlook him too much according to his Humanity and see him not as he is the Son of man in whom Redemption is wrought for us and the Atonement for sin made by the price of his Blood the benefit whereof they have whether they confess it or not These are they that by the Candle of the Lord that is lighted within them the work whereof is written in their inward parts though they be not so much hearers of the Law by the Ministry of the outward Word yet do they shew themselves doors of the Law by the power of the Light that is within them doing as it were by Nature the things contained in the Law and so not having the Law outwardly considered are a Law to themselves shewing the work of it written in their hearts and by keeping the Righteousness of the Law do judge them who by the Letter transgresse the Law and do feel Peace and Comfort in their works In this manner did the Centurian fear God and work Righteousness Act. 10. before he heard those words from Peter that instructed him in the knowledge of Christ's Death and Resurrection and the Peace that comes to the Soul by his Blood unto the Remission of sins by whom all that believe are justified from all things which they could not be justified from by the Law of Nature or Works These ought not to be denied place in this rank of Christ's Witnesses whereof we have been speaking since they own and declare themselves to be fearers of God and workers of Righteousness upon these first principles of it which pure Nature teaches and plants where ever it is renewed and restored from the hand of Christ's liberality and bounty to put the Receivers of it to the tryal how far they will shew their faithfulness in the measure committed to them and in what readiness they are to put these Talents out in the way of exchange to get more and not to rest untill they obtain that state which is immutable It therefore greatly concerns such to look to their standing which is very slippery and uncertain and take heed lest they fall and to think soberly of themselves as they ought to think and not affirm as they are apt to do that their Witness contains in it all that Christ is lest otherwise when they come to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary they be found at last to deny more of Christ than they confess of him Nor are they to exalt this part of the Ministry of Christ which is but the beginning against that fuller sight and knowledge of him that is still to be revealed but this one thing they should do Forget that which is behind and press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling which is in Christ And although it be a commendable thing in them even upon their Principles to spread the knowledge of Christ in all the dark corners of the world where the Scriptures and written Word of Truth are not heard or received the effect of which labours with God's blessing may be the heightning and refining man's nature and purging it from filthy lusts and prophaness teaching them to fly from the Wrath and Vengeance which awaits evil-doers Yet this is to be done in subserviency unto not in opposition against the right knowledge and powerful Preaching of the Scriptures those Divine Oracles which God hath preserved for the great benefit and use of his Church in all times since the first writing of them By these are witnessed the righteous Principles and Actings according to the Law of pure Nature wherein Man was at first created and may so often as Christ pleases be again received in by that Light with which he enlightens every man that comes into the world whereof Christ as we have shewed is the Author and Dispenser and under this first Witness all these are to be comprehended who approve themselves doers of the Law men that fear God and work Righteousness in every Nation in such manner as God accepts though as yet they have not attained to the knowledge of Christ by the outward Ministry and hearing of the written Word But as these are such who pretend to be doers of the Law by a Light within them without dependance upon the Ministry of the written Word by a Teaching of the Word as it is spoken inwardly to the mind by Angels who are entrusted
that came willingly the skins the Badgers skins the red dyed Rams skins for the Covering of the Tabernacle on the out-side good enough yet very course the Boards of Shittem wood the Curtains the Pillars of Wood of Brasse of Wood over-laid with Gold each according to its place and service in the Tabernacle more or lesse excellent as more or lesse inward or spiritual So was the Linnen the Purple the Blue the Scarlet and curious Works the most curious and pure for the Vail next the Mercy-Seat So was it in the Composition of the Perfume and anointing Oyl after the curious and choice Art of the Apothecary that no Composition or Mixture must be made like it of the choicest Spices So for the Lamps of the Canalesticks to give light and for the Altar of Incense evening and morning Oh! great is the Mystery of Godliness in all these things no Lights but what was made of this pure holy Oyl must burn before the Lord if the Priests or Levites did burn any other they must be cut off And so for the Incense of sweet Spices the Lord that Spirit is very curious and can soon spy and smell out the Mixtures of Flesh or any false Compositions and abhor them So in the Priests Garments for Aaron and his Sons to minister in the nearer the Ministration was to the Lord the Purer and Holier and the Garments the more curious The imbroydered fine Linnen Coat holy and pure the Robe of the Ephod of blue the curious Ephod with the two pretious Onix Stones and the engraving therein set on the shoulder plates the curious Girdle of the Ephod with the wreathes of Gold and the holy Brest-plate of Judgement with the twelve pretious Stones coupled to the Ephod and of the same curious workmanship with the curious Girdle the Miter the Plate of Holiness and the Crown for his head For the other Priests not so curious nor such works in regard their Institutions was less glorious In all these things how excellent how skilful and what a cunning searching Spirit of discerning and Judgement had this wise-hearted Soul in the Mysteries unfolding the Riddles and hard Sayings still opening them in Spirit faithful in all God's House and keeping nothing of the Counsel of the Lord back nor hiding his Light under a Bushel but setting it up in the Candlestick so that it gave light to many of the Lord's House I was one of the number of those that constantly attending on his Discourses as oft as I was in Town knew him more in his Family Exercises and Discourses for many years than most from whom I received more help and light in the knowledge of God than from all the men in the World besides and found his Ministry most searching and trying What others took for Gold he proved it to be but Brass and some Doctrines that others preferred for Spiritual he tryed and found them Carnal He had such a Brest-plate of Judgement and Discerning that he did constantly bear the remembrance of all the Tribes of Israel on his heart before the Lord and distinguished every Tribe after his condition yea he had this singular and peculiar gift of Judgement to discern the two Natures the two Seeds the two Covenants to admiration Many a Soul he hath put upon the search that thought he had attained and ran well whom he found to be but in Egypt or at least but departing thence Shall we say he was a Scholler Nay but a Rabbi a Doctor in the knowledge of Christ in whom a greater Fulness of the riches of Wisdom and Knowledge were treasured up than in most like that Disciple that lay in Christ's bosom He obtained so long a share of his life and growth having the true sight and measure of every man's state and growth yet himself sate on a Rock higher than all and was such a blessing in his Witness and Testimony to the Lord in his threefold state of Life Death and Resurrection and so of our conformity and likeness to Him therein that no Book extant but the Striptures did ever clear so much Truth as his Retired Man's Meditations and this blessed Epistle now of his is as a Key that further opens that to the Sons of men and they are to be understood better in spirit and in operation than in words How did he seeing Truth lay scattered maimed and mangled in parts and parcels gather it all up yea and all the Professions and Professors of it and made one whole Garment of Truth amongst them all and that without any seam or rent reconciling and healing all the Wounds and Divisions that have been amongst good People from the crown of the Head to the soale of the Foot in the Spirit of Love Righteousness and true Judgement assigning every Profession and Principle his true and proper place and state in the Body whether Natural or Spiritual VALE To the scattered Seed and Sheep of CHRIST in all Nations the true Israel by Faith unknown for the most part to themselves but more to the World and Worldly Christian Yet in this their unknown or dispersed Estate owned of the Lord as the Church that are in God the Father truly pure Catholick and Christian of which Christ Jesus is the alone and immediate Head BRethren and Fathers c. that in Jesus Christ are dearly beloved and with God of great price Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ To you that are unknown and yet well known it is in my heart to be representing the knowledge of Him that is invisible and the view of your selves in your invisible state together with those that are your known or unknown enemies as that which may prove neither unseasonable nor unprofitable to you in this day of Israel's Captivity but approaching Redemption which hastens fast at which time the Sons of God shall be made manifest If Paul Acts 17. when he passed by and beheld the Athenians Devotions with an Altar having this Inscription To the unknown God took occasion from thence to make him known whom they ignorantly Worshipped Surely it ought not to be accounted blame-worthy in any that seeth the Worship and Devotions now in practise in the visible Christian Church to endeavour the distinguishing the right Catholick Church in its Purity and way of Worship in Spirit and Truth from them and from their wayes of Worship ignorantly however zealously performed that pass under the name of Christ's Mystical Body and his Divine Institutions But you Beloved are of God Elected known as by name having this Seal and Mark from the Lord upon you which is your Stability and sure Foundation the Lord knows who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity No matter therefore if these come to you and find you as to your outward estate in Babylon where according to what is foretold by the Apostle John in the Revelation your abode is to be
of Divine Glory which Christ's Man-head is exalted unto in which he is according to his Man-head He that is above all one with the only begotten that is in the Father's bosome and hath the highest and clearest sight of God beyond that of Angels themselves It is that all Regenerated ones that are made heirs of the Spirit in the single portion thereof are built up and are Temples of the Holy Ghost an everlasting Habitation of God through the Spirit And because the same Jesus that after this first pattern of humane Perfection which is in him gives only the Witness that he is a meer and perfect man and in the exalted and more heavenly state of Manhead which he also hath as he that God the Father hath sealed and admitted to the sight of his own shape and very similitude hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than the Angels and must also give the Witness of what he is and in what Glory he lives as he inherits the Spirit in this double portion thereof Therefore by the same new creating Power which he is intrusted to administer as he gives the Holy Ghost he produces this second sort of new men and adopted Children heirs according to the Promise upon whom Christ poures out his Spirit not only by the measure and pattern or Rule of the first Creation but above it and beyond it according to the proportion that his own glorified Manhead hath obtained it in its highest exaltation admitting them into the same bosome of the Father with himself wherein he is as the only begotten into which bosome and most intimate vision of God neither do the Angels nor first sort of Heirs and Children of the Son's Kingdom ever arrive but is reserved to be dwelt alone in by this Seed of Abraham God's friend that are made Christ's peculiar Possession consisting of a select number of his choice Favourites and Friends that he Redeems from amongst all other men to make as the first fruits of his Creation to God and to the Lamb who are joynt-heirs with him of the double Portion and co-habit together with him in his Father's bosom where they see and Inherit his Glory in the Naked and Primitive purity which it hath in the Breast of God himself Experiencing as well what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when it is God's Name poured out above measure as well as by measure that which Paul had some taste of whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell upon his being caught up into the third Heavens to the hearing of things impossible for him to utter in his Bodily state nor others to receive And if thus we understand the third Heavens as indeed we ought then the finding out the other two next below them will not be difficult since the second Heaven is that wherein are the Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect upon the laying down the Body and the first that Presence of Christ and knowledge of his Name which he vouchsafes unto his Church and particular Saints in the converse they have with him here below in the Body which Paul doth also call a Heaven Phil. 3. 20. where he sayes Our Conversation is in Heaven meaning by the walking with Christ in Spirit as well as being and living in it whilest we are here in this World in which Christ is able and doth appear to our Bodily sensual part before its change and putting on that which is Incorruptible as it must do and Christ's manhead thus considered as it makes this threefold Heaven was lively represented and described by the form of building God caused the Ark to be built up in Gen. 6. 16. where the directions that are given do require Noah to make it of lower second and third stories or heights one above another like the outward Court the Body of the Temple and Holy of Holies or inmost part of the House which God commanded also in Solomon's Temple and both not without signifying this great Mystery in the glorified manhead of Christ by the Spirit and Presence whereof he makes a threefold Heaven and way of converse with the Sons of men under the threefold degrees of Light and Glory that from his Face and by the Spirit of his Mouth are given forth and hath answerable Hearers and Receivers 1. That Administration of the Light of pure Nature the effects whereof upon the hearts of the Receivers produces healing and restoration of the wound made by sin and renews a like frame of Spirit in man as to the kind of it wherein he was at first Created and is still exercising his first mutable and wavering Principles that in time of tryal fail and so end in Apostacy and Death through the weakness and fault of the Vessel not of the Liquor or Oyl which is poured out into these Lamps that in his own Nature is Incorruptible but is suffered to leak out by these broken and frail Vessels Secondly The Light of pure Nature and right Reason fixed and made incorruptible through Faith and Regeneration whereby the former frailty and leaking of the Vessel is perfectly cured without changing the fashion of it any further than what is requisite to bring it into subjection and obedience to a supream Judgment and Will given as its guide and surety to sustain and influence the actings thereof throughout The Third is the Light of Divine Love which he that dwells in dwells in God and is in the Light as He is in the Light beholding divine beauty in its original where it is most attractive and binds up the Judgement and Will of the beholders into its own likeness most willingly and irresistably transforming them into the thing beloved This is the Love which casts out fear and all torment in the cleerest evidence and greatest assurance that the Creature can possess And by this Love it is when not seen that Faith works and the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father that Spirit and Presence of the Son that is sent into our hearts which we are knit into by an inseparable union and the Soul is formed thereby into the likeness of him that doth beget in either of the two last degrees of Light and quickning before-mentioned Both which do beget that Seed of Life in the heart that is immortal the Princely prevailing conquering Seed of Believers that are the true Israel of God to whom all the Promises are sure this is wrought by the coming of the Son in Spirit into the Soul there to beget and form his own likeness in our Understanding and Will the making us know him that is true and that we are in him that is true either according to this lower or higher birth of himself of which he calls us to partake and so become Witnesses thereof in our selves and unto others This then is the knowledge of the Truth which we are to understand doth make the Adopted Children of God free with another and better kind of
Evangelists or Pastors and Teachers So there are of these inferiour Ranks to the Apostles which hear and receive the knowledge of the Gospel and the holy Ghost either from the mouths of the Apostles and by the laying on of their hands as did the Evangelists or by other subordinate instituted means that is to say either inwardly onely by the inspiration of Angels thereunto sent and authorized by Christ as to Philip in the case of the Eunuch's Conversion and to Abraham and the Patriarchs after him four hundred years together before the written Word was given and who before the Incarnation were made use of to give the Law which is there called the Word spoken by Angels Heb. 2. 1. Or secondly by the communication of such Gifts for interpreting and opening of the written Word as we find in the Church of Corinth and this by such Prophetical Gifts as not only the Officers did partake of to fit them for the Ministry but secondly the very Members of the Church also shared in for the common edification of the Body So that either by inward Inspiration from Angels under Christ or by the witnessing Spirit of Christ immediately which is the Spirit of Prophecy or by Gifts of Abilities in a more ordinary way for the interpreting and opening the Scriptures Christ hath alwayes had his Labourers in his Harvest And all these several Degrees in the Ministry as they are found in subordination subserviency and agreement one with another in their place and differing measures do make sweet harmony and redound to great profit in the Church But if they break their Ranks and the inferiour exalt and lift up themselves in preference above and opposition to the superiour and greater measures these then corrupt and set up for themselves or are made use of by him that knows how to transform his ministers into Ministers of Righteousness to advance his Kingdom and turn bitter and implacable Enemies and Persecutors of the Womans Seed and true Spiritual Worshippers Let it not then be said that to be against the Ministry in this last sense is to be against all Ministry especially such who acknowledge Christ the Chief Minister and great Ordainer of God's Worship and all those to be his Ministers that have Unction and Mission from him in all the Orders and Degrees of them wherein they are acknowledged by the Scriptures whom God hath pleased to make use of to bear the Witness committed to them during Antichrist's Reign in a suffering sackcloth prophesying state which will not lose its fruit but become a sweet savour of life unto life in them that are saved and a favour of death unto death in them that perish We now shall proceed to the next Enquiry which is Who they are that in Principles are opposit to these two Anointings and the Effects of them and declare their Enmity by their continued War in the posture of our Enemies or dissembled Friends both making up but the same Kingdom of Darkness which since Christs coming is called Antichrists Righteousness and Truth are the two supporters of Christ's Throne with the frist God enlightens and quickens the natural beings of Angels and men who in their mutable and uncertain state are possessors of Righteousness in purity and perfection whilst they are and may be strangers to Truth that is firmness and certainty which is as the Crown and Top-stone to the first Building And therefore the Light of Truth which is a clearness in the Judgment that had a right discerning before that doth fix it and ascertain it beyond all possible doubt and contradiction and the activity of Truth which is a stedfastness and pressing forward in the Will wherein may be found righteous operation before to run in that race and never fail nor faint is most necessary to follow and succeed where the first goes before as that which is its consummation and final perfection In the breast where these two Lights meet imbrace and kiss each other there is the true Vrim and Thummim the Divine enlightned mind which makes all those wherein it is found free Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and beloved Children and Subjects of Christs Kingdom As it is written Joh. 3 19 20 21. Light is come into the world Light in both these respects is come to dwell with us in our own nature when the Word was made flesh and to be amongst us in our mouth and in our heart to hear it and obey it Whence it is that this is said to be the Condemnation of the World that Light is thus come in the person of our Redeemer the second Adam and men have notwithstanding loved Darkness better than Light because of the contrariety that is in the evil deeds of men unto the very nature of Light which makes manifest and reproves them and from thence contracts hatred from evil men very unjustly who love not to be discovered in their wickedness nor to be under censure and reproof for it but perfectly hate thus to be discovered and judged and that is at bottom the quarrel and rise of the enmity between the Subjects of these two Kingdoms of Darkness and of Light Hatred and enmity against the Light of Righteousness and Truth which shine forth in Jesus Christ as in the head and in his Witnesses and Children as the members in what hearts soever they are found are in general the opposit Principles we are now speaking of and the Root or Cause whence those spring is from the love that such hearts at bottom do bear unto evil that is to say to unrighteousness and falshood which they prefer and adhere unto before the Light of the Image of God which is wrought out in Christ and in his members Of these lovers of Darkness more than Light we are to consider Either first such as are born blind and are already darkned in their understandings and alienated in their wills by evil works dead in trespasses and sins Or secondly such as have their Light freely restored to them again for asking and however so much of it as may make them sensible of the need of more and to discern the means of their perfect cure Or thirdly Such as after their first Light restored are offered the gift of a better sight than ever they had at first which shall not only enlarge what they had at first in their primitive purity but preserve it in an endless life without any possible danger ever to lose it more For the first It is the condition of all Mankind in general and was the effect that followed upon the sin of our first Parents by which door Death entred and passed upon all men because in them all had sinned Nor did this befall the Children meerly or principally because of sin as if that were the end that God had in it but that the works of God's Grace should be manifested thereby For no sooner did the disease and wound appear but God had provided a Physician and healing
this 17th Chapter but by this Key deserves our very serious consideration according to the usual understanding of the Papacy to be meant by this Whore which is not denied to be a part of Babylon and a chief part and to be also a Whore and Mother of Fornications but she is so openly and avowedly not secretly and under the shew of Reformation and there is not any mystery or secret in it to find her out as there is in the other case We come then in the last place as the Conclusion of the whole to shew what Word and part of his Counsels contained in the Promises and Prophecies not yet accomplished the Lord is now fulfilling in these present dispensations of our day and this by the comparing Scriptures with Scriptures and observing what gradually hath been fulfilled since the time of Christ's Ascention to this day and what signs he hath before given of the times wherein we now are There is nothing more positive and express in the Scripture as may appear by what hath been already mentioned and for which many particular Texts might further be alledged than this That there is a Kingdom of the Everlasting Gospel which neither can nor shall be shaken that must be brought upon the stage here in this World which shall stand firm as a Rock against all opposition and come forth as a stone cut out of the Mountain without hands that must break down the visible heads which the Serpent hath kept up in and over the whole Earth for these many thousand years together by the means whereof the true Children and Heirs have been kept out of their Possession and have been necessitated to a Witnessing and Prophesying condition in a way of Sufferings and of utmost cruel dealings and oppressions from their implacable Enemies to whom it hath been given to make and continue War with them till the course of Sufferings be finished Of this bitter Cup the Captain of our Salvation drank the deepest draught and had the greatest share And lest we should think he had put an end to the Sufferings of his Members by one Death on the Cross he dealt plainly with his Disciples in this point both before his Death and also during the forty dayes he spent upon Earth after his Resurrection for when the two sons of Zebedee had hopes to have seen him in his own Person speedily in his Kingdom before his Sufferings and were desirous the one to sit at his right hand and the other at his left in that day of his Glory and Power he intimates to them immediately that there is a Preparation requisit to be wrought in all that shall be thought worthy of that dignity which is to drink of the same Cup and to be baptized with the same Baptism that he was baptized with according to that true and faithful saying If we die with him we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall reign with him And so when all the Disciples together a little before his Ascention Act. 1. 6 8. asked him saying Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel his Answer is in effect this to them That until Israel's witnessing-work be over and finished that must prepare them to Rule and ripen their Enemies for the Judgment and Destruction appointed unto all ungodly men that must first precede the reigning-work which they too much looked for and thirsted after would not come nor the dayes of it begin Now this witnessing-work which is to be finished by the true Israel of God as the needful and requifit Preparation of you to Reign is What is to be wrought in them upon their own hearts and what is to be wrought by you as a Testimony born and given to the World on God's behalf And the latter of these is usually made use of by God to accomplish the former since all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shewing forth the Vertues of Him that hath called them in a holy and good Conversation shining as Lights in the World must suffer Persecution and are sure to be hated and oppressed by the World and Powers of it by all wayes and means that may prove their Faith and Patience And these Tryals which thus give proof of their Faith do cause Patience to have its perfect work in them till which they are not those meet vessels fitted for their Master's use as that he will dignifie them to appear seated as on his Throne in their hearts and thereby qualifie them with a Power of Rule so as at their word and by their prayers all things shall become possible to them What they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and what they loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven For greater works than Christ himself did when he was in the flesh they shall do because he is gone to his Father Secondly The witnessing-work is not only to be wrought in them to prepare them in mind and body to be meet vessels for the use of their Head by them to shew forth his Wisdom and Power to the glorifying of God in their spirits and in their bodies which are his but the Light of it must be given out and born in the sight and for the profit and good of others if the fault be not in themselves that should benefit by it unto whom the savour of the knowledge of Christ ministred by his faithful Witnesses in their several places and callings will prove in the issue either a savour of life unto life or of death unto death according as either it is received and valued or rejected and expelled No man saith Christ when he hath lighted a Candle putteth it in a secret place neither under a Bushel but on a Candlestick that they that come in may see the light which Scripture is interpreted 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. where the instance is given in meeting of the whole Church together in one place that is as many visible Saints and Believers as could well hear one another in the place they assembled in for their common Edification In which Church-meeting they were as a Golden Candlestick that did in such manner hold forth the shining Light of Christ's Truth and Holiness to those that came in and were lookers on and were not of the Society that by the Spirit of Prophecy which in and among them of that particular Church was exercised it so fell out that whoever came in desirous to learn and be instructed he was convinced of all he was judged of all and the secrets of his heart were so manifest that falling down on his face he worshipped God and went out and reported that God was in them of a truth This is then the second sort of Witnessing-work which by Christ was intrusted to his Disciples and Followers to be exercised and imployed in according to their several places and callings till his return in the day wherein he is to come and judge the World in Righteousness that is
times are brought all the concurring and fore-running Symptoms and Characters thereof Secondly That the time of the End that is to say the fore-toldof day in which Christ is to judge the World in Righteousness so as to make up his Jewels on the one hand and gather them as his precious Fruits into his Granary and to kindle an Oven of his fiery Vengeance to burn up the VVicked root and branch and gather together the Tares to be burnt in unquenchable fire is at the very doors and ready to open it self upon us as the day of Redemption to the Good and Terror and Amazement to the Wicked Thirdly That this Day shall begin with the Rising of the VVitnesses clothing those that then shall be in the World with such a Ministry of Power and Glory as shall qualifie them to discharge their several Witness-bearing Duty before specified with great applause and good reception from the World God permitting none to stand before them that make resistance or opposition which shall be as a necessary fore-running dispensation for Christ's Personal Manifestation and Rule on Earth a thousand years but by these Savioxrs that thus shall be brought up upon Mount Zion as a Stone cut out without hands New Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness shall be constituted and the four Monarchies utterly broken to pieces and destroyed and the Kingdom of Antichrist and the Beast brought to final ruine and destruction The very mentioning of these three Particulars without alledging particular places of Scripture will bring them to your mind which teach and speak expresly concerning the truth of them and the matter of fact it self as to what progress and course this witnessing-work hath made from Judea where first it was lighted step by step into all Nations and Kingdoms all the World over who have been acquainted with these VVitnesses and have seen their Light shining in these Golden Candlesticks and can give an account how from time to time they have been put out and removed from one place to another till atlast the bodies of these two Prophets are found dead in the streets of the earthly Jerusalem and spiritual Egypt and Sodom if they might be suffered to be put into their Graves and surely it is not without great wisdom that these Witnesses are called Two considering the two distinct Ministries of Christ which they bear witness unto and how each Ministry hath two out of whose mouth it receives its Justification But further That this Testimony is upon its finishing point let us enquire whether the last slaying of the Witnesses declared by the sight of their dead bodies Rev. 11. fit to be put into their Graves be not already before out eyes The right opening and understanding whereof is of great use as a key to many other most considerable and difficult Scriptures These two Witnesses as they justifie Christ's second Ministry the knowledg of him in spirit are the Saints in their invisible Church-state fled into the Wilderness from the violence and rage of Persecution which Satan stirred up against them by the visible Church and Powers of the Civil Rule Government called in for assistance How these Witnesses are two we have shewed being the two Orders of Believers which Christ's Mystical Body hath been ever consisting of though rather mystically figured out than appearing as they are in the truth and brightness of their proper Glory as Heirs of the Spirit of Promise in the single and double portion thereof These in their Spirit Nature and Principles have been disowned persecuted and slain by the visible Church as much as in them lies by exposing of them to the utmost of bodily sufferings and harms and this from the time that the visible Church hath degenerated grown Papal and been defended by the ten horns of her Civil Government in the Western Empire of the World and the sharpest and most bitter Enemies to these two Witnesses are the Reformed part of the visible Church who declare their ripeness to be rejected by Christ and have the flood of the Papal Power and Tyranny let in upon them as they hate and reject the heavenly Seed and spiritual part of the Church and can find opportunity to go back again into Conjunction with the Corrupt part of the visible Church to hinder the growth of that which is Spiritual rather than to go forward and become one with it So that it might be made appear in the whole progress the Gospel hath made from East to West the Reformed part of the Church never lost ground nor was swallowed up again by the Papal till it self first took up its stand as to going on forward and refused to be more Spiritual and Heavenly being fiercer enemies hereunto than any other whatsoever And the greatest demonstration of this is given in the last act of this Enmity that hath been acted and is yet in acting to the last slaughter which is to be made of the Witnesses in order to expose their dead bodies in the open streets of this Earthly Jerusalem where they are as spectacles to be seen three dayes that is years and an half by them of Peoples and Tongues and Kindreds and Nations headed by the Papacy who shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves by the Inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem who were willing enough to do it as exceedingly joyed at the sight of their dead bodies but shall rather chuse to quit those dead Carkases in way of contempt from any further prosecution of them and instead thereof apply themselves with the strength of their whole Party to strengthen and besiege the earthly Jerusalem in whose streets the dead Carkases of the Witnesses are to lye in a way of open reproach to be gazed upon and shall make a gathering against it as Zach. 14. 2. as to battel so as the event of it shall be the taking of the City and the utter ruine of that part of the visible Church distinguished from the other by the Name of Reformed which when it happens will be a Fourth sign and by conjecture this work is already begun and materials for this Siege are not only in readiness and the Design laid and the Parties agreed that are to undertake it but the open Defiance to the Battel is given and both sides fixed in their resolutions to abide the issue which will not exceed the term of three years and an half before it be fully decided Upon which decision that according to Dan. 2. 43. is to happen between these two parts of the visible Church immediately after they find they cannot pitch upon the way of piecing up together against those that dwell in Heaven though it be both their interests and that they earnestly desire and labour it Nay this Mount of Olives on which this second pair of Witnesses or visible part of the Church Reformed are that shall Zach. 14. 4. cleave also in the middest as not being able to hold longer together
Life from the dead before these promises shall be accomplished In Answer to which I shall only say There will indeed upon the rising of the Witnesses that seed of Abraham appear and be made manifest that are the true and proper Jews a Nation advanced in love and glory from God above all other Nations and People of which an account hath been given before and then it will be found no other Jewish Nation are to be eyed but as they fall within and are comprehended amongst the Gentile fulness of those Nations that are to be saved FINIS THE Face of the Times WHEREIN Is briefly discovered by several Prophetical Scriptures from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation the RISE PROGRESSE and ISSUE of the ENMITY and CONTEST between the SEED of the WOMAN and SEED of the SERPENT to the final breaking of the Serpent's head in the total and irrecoverable Ruin of the MONARCHIES of this World which have been spirited influenced and headed all along by him for the bruising of the Saints Heel or killing of their Bodies for the Testimony of Jesus which by them hath been given forth in the true Spirit of Prophesie The Design of this Writing is To ALARM the World and awaken up the present Generation of God's People in it to a more diligent and curious observation of the present Signs of the near approaching day of the Lord that they may be more carefully minding and â—oing what most concerns them by way of preparation thereunto Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of that day of God which will come as a thief in the night wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. Printed in the Year 1662. THE Face of the Times IT was the saying of Christ to the Generation he conversed with while in the flesh Ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the skies but can ye not or how is it that ye cannot discern the signs of the times Why do you not set your selves to observe and spel out the meaning of God's providential voice given forth in harmony with his written Oracles by the Judgements which he is now executing in the earth as to that most pertinent and concerning Truth The near approach of the day of the Lord It will surprize and overtake the wicked that are in darkness as a thief and exceeding dreadful will it be to them But the Children of Light and of that day are required to lift up their heads when they see the signes thereof however dismal to their fleshly part for their Redemption draweth nigh Luk 21. 25 28. God is still working and carrying on his designes in the world on the behalf of his People as also over-ruling all the contrary actings of his and their enemies in pursuance of his decree published at passing that sentence upon the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel In the latter branch of this sentence which was first put in execution God declares himself as to sundry particulars which do summarily and fully contain his design and work throughout all ages of the World till it be accomplished and the Mystery of it finished as he hath declared unto his servants the Prophets Rev. 10. 7. Then the Saints Turne will come to act his part in pursuance of the former branch of the Decree for bruising of the Serpents head and giving an incurable wound to all his adherents There is indeed a great mystery in the managing of this war which God declares he hath founded in the enmity set by him between the seed of the Woman and seed of the Serpent Matters are so contrived in the most wise designe of God that the seed of the Woman must suffer first and be on the losing hand as to any outward quietness and fair dealing that they are to expect in this world for a long tract of time wherein the headship of this world the Empire and Government of the whole earth shall be as it were in the hands of the evil one who shall be very much permitted to dispose of the powers of it to his own instruments and creatures But at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet this time is to end and be no longer Then the seed of the woman must break this headship which Satan for so long time hath exercised over the whole world and destroy all those worldly Kingdoms that have been managed under his influence to their prejudice Then Judgement will be given to the Saints of the most High They shall take and possesse the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. Then the Kingdomes of this world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ holding of him as their visible head who is and was and is to come and will take unto himself his great power for that purpose The particulars which are summed up Gen. 3. 15. concerning the nature of this war and the manner of managing it explained since by time and the history of things in the Scriptures are these 1. Let Satan do his worst and make all the Power and parties he can amongst the Sons of Adam yet God will have a Seed in the World called there the seed of the woman that shall be in a state of fixed enmity and war against him and his seed 2. For a long tract of time Satan shal not be chained up nor restrained from using all his skill and power by himself and his instruments for the doing of his utmost in a way of war to ruine destroy and prevail against the Seed of the Woman For this end he shall be permitted to have the subordinate exercise of the Empire and visible Government of the whole world to be given and bestowed as himself will for the strengthening his interest and encouraging of those that will be his creatures and fall down and worship him 3. The contrariety of mind and principles between these two seeds will be so fixed and unchangeable that they will never give over contesting and fighting one with or against another whatever it cost them till the heel of the one be fully bruised that is till the sufferings of Christ yet behind in his body mystical and every member thereof be accomplished by sustaining loss in the flesh even to death it self and the head of the other fully broken that is till the headship and visible Government of the World be wholly taken out of the hands of Satan and his instruments and reassumed by Christ into his own hands and the hands of fit and meet Ministers and Officers under him 4. After a long time of patience under bodily sufferings not loving their Lives
knowledge of the Life which is hid with Christ in God Those that are in this Kingdom and in whom the Power of it is are fitted to flye with the Church into the VVilderness and to continue in such a solitary dispersed desolate condition till God calls them out of it They have VVells and Springs opened to them in this VVilderness whence they draw the VVaters of Salvation without being in bondage to the Life of Sense and the objects depending thereon as touch not taste not handle not which perish in the using 2. But Secondly Christ's Kingdom is also outward appearing to sense and to the eye of the sensual or inferiour part of the mind which works only by bodily organs judging by the sight of that eye and the hearing of that ear whose life is in and by the body consisting in bodily exercise and is therefore compared Revel 11. 2. to the outward Court and the VVorship thereunto appertaining This is the Dominion of God in the Conscience also though but in the inferiour or sensual part of the mind where it becomes a Law in our Members to put in execution and perform the Law of the Spirit of our Mind that so our very bodies may become the Temple of the holy Ghost and we may be able to glorifie God not in our Spirits only but in our Bodies also as clean Vessels and earthen Tabernacles upon which may be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD Zech. 14. Now the Kingdom of Christ comes not properly to appear in outward shew and visibility but as it shines forth in this lower and earthly part of the Soul witnessing the Dominion and Power of God to be there as a Law and commanding Principle in and over the outward man With respect to this kind of its Appearance in affecting and influencing the bodily part of man and becoming the Life thereof it is capable to come forth in a Power and Glory that is corruptible fading and that wears away as also in that which is incorruptible and abides for ever The first of these is meant 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. where 't is said Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or have the like appearance with him for we shall see him as he is The Sons of God are not yet in the proper appearance of his Sons but do bear the form and appearance of the fleshly man to the making a fair shew in the flesh They have their Treasure but in an earthen Vessel unredeemed from its present bondage unto corruption But the time is hastening when they shall in Spirit shine forth as the Sun in its strength in the Kingdom of their Father and their very bodies shall be as the Firmament transparent and of service to unvail the glory of the inward man and not cover and disguise it as now they do But alas This fair shew in the flesh which may also be made by those that are strange Children passes with most for the Kingdom of Christ even yet in these last dayes some crying Lo here and some lo there according to that form of service and divine worship they are perswaded in their minds is according to the Rule of God's VVord though it be but that only which appertains to the outward Court which is given up by God into the hands of the Gentiles to possess and tread under foot at their pleasure The Heavens hereof are passing away with a great noise and these worldly Elements are melting apace As a Vesture they shall be folded up and changed they shall perish and wear old as a Garment whilst Christ's inward and spiritual Kingdom shall remain and in its due time come forth in an appearance that shall be lasting and unshaken for ever VVherefore we receiving this Kingdom which cannot be moved let us hold fast and have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear For our God is a consuming fire But to return and apply our selves to the subject we were on before which is To give the view of what Word God is fulfilling and what part of his Counsel he is executing among us in this our day The Heavens are now black over our heads the Sun is turned into darkness the Moon into blood and mens hearts are failing them for fear of what God is bringing upon the Earth Great distress is in the Land and upon the Nations Wrath is coming upon that People who say they are Jews and are not but shall be found liars The Sea and the waves also will roar the prophane heathenish party of men will be in great perplexity too Surely the Figtree and all the Trees are shooting forth and after this cruel sharp Winter that is and for some space is yet to be upon us the Summer approaches that will make amends for all Great cause there is for the Sons of God to lift up their heads as foreseeing that their Redemption draws nigh In this point the Book of the Revelations will be every day more and more opened to give us light and instruction the Providences of God helping much every day too as to the interpretation thereof together with the Spirit of Truth that dwells and lives in the hearts of Saints Through mercy the Lord who is that Spirit hath not been wanting in his Teachings of this kind to a poor Worm in my present solitude and bonds I shall have occasion to tell you by and by that there appears cause to me of dissent from Mr. Mede as to some applications that are made by him in his learned Commentary on that Book when I come to speak of some particulars concerning the Witnesses and their twofold time and state of prophesying 1. Their thousand two hundred and sixty years prophesying in sackcloth in a persecuted wilderness state 2. Their prophesying in power and glory during the space of the pouring forth of the seven Vials of Wrath as a fore-running Eliah-like Ministry preparatory to Christ's thousand years Reign on Earth Yet as to that which Mr. Mede calls his great Key for the opening of that whole Book to wit his Synchronisms or Contemporations of things which he finds to agree and fall out together in the same age and time I exceedingly reverence his Judgement and look upon him as one that hath most happily found out the hidden order and method used by the holy Ghost in that Prophetical Book This method being once known to the very rational judgment of man that may be exercised upon the matters contained in that Book they are thereby rendred much more easie and intelligible Let us also take it for granted as that which is the common judgment of those that acknowledge the Scriptures that in this Book of the Apocalypsâ— are contained and revealed in an orderly method the things which were to fall out in the course of God's Providence and wise ordering of
and Body This is that Principle and Power that after the limited time of 1260 years must fall and be taken out of the way 15. By the Witnesses Prophesying in Sack-cloth are meant the true Circumcision in Spirit who Worship God in Christ Jesus and live in a through-resignedness of mind to him that is risen from the dead who is the Spirit of Truth which is given them by the Father to be their guide of whom and of whose Testimony they are not ashamed what ever disgrace it be in or however rejected by the Government under which the Providence of God hath placed them They do therefore own it as their Principle and make it their practice to bear and suffer under such worldly Powers and Governments in Faith and Patience whatever befals them for their Testimony 's sake without attempting to resist the Powers that are to disturb their peace or give them any just cause of offence They are called Witnesses because of the word of their Testimony which they forbear not to give in the worst and most suffering times whatever it cost them And they are Two described by two Candlesticks or Societies of Believers and two Olive Trees or Sons of Oyl because through Faith they are the receivers of the Anointing which comes from the Holy One and is Truth and no Lie This Anointing proportions it self in its Gift either according to the measure it finds the Nature of man capable to take in and possess without any new addition of a distinct superiour capacity and reception or else gives forth its self in a vast and boundless communication wherein it is capable to flow forth into man and to form in him an answerable Reception thereunto beyond and above that capacity and measure of knowledge and discerning which is proper to man in his first make or building to the extending and enlarging the intellectual part of man's Being into a more abundant fruition of God in a superiority to that of Angels even to a joynt inheriting seeing and enjoying of God with the exalted humane Nature of the Son of God in that Name which he obtains above Angels and wherein he is more excellent than they At this more excellent Name of Christ as it originally shines forth in Christ's own Person every knee must bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father These two sorts of Saints are in most intimate Union and inseperable conjunction with the Lord that Spirit who is the Son of man glorified or justified in Spirit and who hath the gift of the Anointing in both the respects before-mentioned The one sort of these Saints as well as the other do with open face behold as in a glass the Glory of the Lord whether that wherein he is perfect man or that wherein he is more than man the man that is God's Fellow and Equal and so Superiour and Head to Angels Principalities and Powers ascended far above all Heavens And they are changed into the same Image respectively whether of the one Glory or of the other by the Spirit of the Lord or the Lord the Spirit These Two Witnesses do live and abide in their Principles and word of their Testimony when their persons die and they have put off their earthly Tabernacle For the Witnessing-work is carried on in a succession of new Witnesses brought upon the stage of this World one Generation after another during the time declared of 1260 years whilst they are appointed to prophesie in Sack-cloth And when that suffering season of theirs shall have an end put to it as it must the like two Companies and Societies of Saints spirited with the same Principles that these sackcloth or suffering Prophets are of both of them making but one Church and House of the Living God shall be quicken'd and rais'd up in Power by such a Redemption wrought in and upon their bodies even here in this life from the bondage of Corruption as is called the Adoption of the body Rom. 8. 23. This Adoption or Redemption of the body on this side the Resurrection will hold proportion very much with Christ's Transfiguration This state of the body is prophetically described Dan. 12. 3. where we are given to understand that the bodies of the Saints or of those that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and their Spirits as the Stars for ever and ever For into such an intimate relation and conjunction will Christ as he is the Head of Angels take and adopt the Spirits of Angels and men regenerated with himself and with one another as by his own influence on the Spirits of Saints and by his and the influence of their own Spirits on their bodily or sensual part to reduce their bodies into so near a relation to and conjunction with the Life of their Spirits and Christ in Spirit as will raise and advance them into a heavenly frame and render them meet for so great a glory of Spirit or eminent exercise of spiritual Life and Power This will be a glory of the body not before known as a common and general dispensation since the World began nor yet hardly so eminently experienced even by those few choice Types and Shadowes of it Enoch Moses and Elias or others This is that state of body or of the very outward-man and sensual part of the Saint whereby Christ will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that do believe A LETTER OF Sir HENRY VANE To his LADY from the Isle of SCYLLY My Dear Heart THe Wind yet continuing contrary makes me desirous to be as much in Converse with thee having this opportunity as the Providence of God will permit hoping these will come safe to your hand It is no small Satisfaction to me in these sharp Tryals to experience the Truth of those Christian Principles which God of his Grace hath afforded you and me in our measures the knowledge and emboldned us to make the profession of For surely by this Fiery Tryal which is from God appointed to try us no strange or unusual Dispensation of God hath happened to us differing from that which all his Servants and Prophets from the beginning of the World to this day have found also to be their Lot Nor is it other than the Condition as I may say and Law that all those must come under and submit unto that will approve themselves Christ's Disciples indeed Luk. 14. 26 27. And it is no small Mercy that the greatest Extremities we have already under-gone and which do as yet threaten have found that strength and rooting of the Grace and Love of Christ in our Hearts which causes us not to despair of being made more than Conquerors in the end without desiring those Conditions of peace vers 32. which are not consistent with our being such Disciples of Christ as will cheerfully when called to it forsake all they have in love to him and subjection to his Will Why should Christ ask us
of their Wilderness-condition Yet this earth or miry clay cannot when all 's done cleave heartily and thorowly to the heathenish prophane Spirit of the first Beast but at last is preyed upon by it This Earthly Jerusalem is unexpectedly surprized and overflowed as with a flood by that prophane Interest it ventured to call to its assistance against the true Seed of the Woman in which respect it is said that the Earth helps the Woman the wrath of the prophane party of Antichrist's Kingdom or of the ten-horned Beast being chiefly spent and poured out upon that Professing Party that make up the second or two-horned Beast 11. By the Inhabitants of the Heavens of the Earth and of the Sea chap. 12. 12. are meant First The Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem who are under Grace Secondly The Citizens of the earthly Jerusalem who are under the dominion and curse of the Law And Thirdly The prophane Party who live under sin moving therein as in their Element past feeling by reason of the blindness and hardness of their hearts This state of Sin is nevertheless not unchangeable nor those that are Captives under it in a condition irrecoverable for Christ died to redeem men out of it 12. By the seven-headed and ten-horned Beast arising out of the Sea is to be understood the Empire or Governing Power of the World in whose hands soever it be found as it is made the Seat and Throne of Satan and promotes the Interest of the Devils Kingdom in corruption of manners and prophaness even by the countenance of humane Laws or at least in the execution of them 13. By the two-horned Beast arising out of the Earth we are to understand the Usurpation of the Prophetical Office of Christ by a false Spirit or the said Office as deceitfully executed in a private Spirit of self-byassed Reason in disjunction from the Spirit of the true Head undertaking to counsel and lead men in the interpretation of the written Word or other evident signification of God's Will This once joyned with worldly Government and Power made its vassal and ridden by it is that Spirit and Principle for promoting of worldly Religion which is founded in and supported by humane Laws under the Name and Form of Christianity The two-horned Beast and the false Prophet are therefore the same as by comparing chap. 13. vers 14. with vers 20. of chap. 19. is most clear And the ten-horned Beast is wont also to be called the Image of the Beast where ever therefore the Beast and the false Prophet are mentioned together as they are three times there by the name of the Beast is meant no other but the ten-horned Beast as by the false Prophet the two-horn'd Contrarily where with the Beast we find coupled the Image of the Beast as chap. 14. vers 9 11. chap. 15. vers 2. chap. 16. vers 2. chap. 19. vers 20. chap. 20. vers 4. there by Beast is to be understood the false Prophet and by his Image the seven-headed and ten-horn'd Beast as restored For this Beast seeing he acknowledgeth the false Prophet as his Restorer and suffereth himself to be guided by him as his supream Lord chap. 13. vers 12 14 15. he is not without cause called his Image not as representing or bearing the similitude of the two-horn'd Beast but he is the Image which the two-horn'd Beast speaking like the Dragon did restore and which he challengeth for his own To justifie this that very Image of the Beast which the false Prophet did give life unto did cause that whosoever would not worship the Image of the Beast should be slain To conclude of the self-same is the Image of the Beast and the Name or Number said to be chap. 15. 2. The Name and Number seem not to be called the Name and Number of any other Beast than of the two-horn'd as of the principal Founder and Lord. 14. The Number of the Name of the Beast being said to be the Number of a man signifies that it is the sensual part of man's Wisdom or Reason become devilish by joyning in combination with Satan in his revolt from his true Head and in exercising enmity against all Righteousness upon one account or other This sensual part of man's Wisdom savours and minds Earthly or seen things and delights in corporeal fleshly objects whether actually corrupt or only corruptible This is the Wisdom that is prevalent with the generality of men in the World according to the Principles of which the Empire and Government of the World is managed and the judgment and interpretation of the very Law and Word of God is made for the Rule in matters of Faith and Worship This Wisdom is in its best estate unstable and unfixed so as from the top and height of its honour there is suddenly a being made like the Beast that perishes and so a falling short of the true Rest This was the case of the first Adam who was created on the sixt day and whose unstable perfection is therefore numbered by six thrice repeated This sensual part of man's Wisdom is the executing or performing Power of the Soul in reference to the dictates and enlightnings that declare themselves in the intellectual and angelical part of the mind which many times serves and approves the Law of God whilst the sensual part serves and obeyes sin and as with a Law of common consent from the Members opposes and resists the good and right Rule which shines forth in man's intellect and which we call sound or right Reason But as this sensual part in its movings and actings holds agreement and is in conjunction with the intellectual part as its Ruler and Guide following the dictates thereof so far the actings thereof are sound and right holding conformity to the Law of God Thus even the sensual part as subject to the right dictates of the intellectual is it self a Rule unto humane action and is the principle and foundation of righteous Magistratical Government amongst men Now when this Principle in Magistrates ceases to be any longer found in a state of down-right Paganism and comes to be healed and restored out of darkness and prophaness by receiving of the Scriptures or written Word of God opened and interpreted by such as pretend to be commissioned and gifted for that purpose unto which it owes its healing and restoration it doth by way of acknowledgement receive and set up that prophetical Office in an administration countenanced by humane Laws and the Magistrates Power Where-ever this kind of Magistracy is in both the branches of it both Civil and Ecclesiastical setting up for themselves and their own Interests in their own wills in disjunction from Christ and his Spirit the true Head and in opposition to the Remnant of the Womans Seed and their testimony in word and action there is the Kingdom and Seat of the Beast and Antichrist leading the People over whom it is exercised into servitude both of Soul